5 Best New Songs of the Week – 14/04/2017

Long live irregularity! Last week our inbox was down (who knows what great music has been lost to us, forever?) so we’re doing this on Friday instead of Sunday because otherwise music’s gonna pile up which is also not good. 5+1 songs this time!

Hoop – Marlin SpikeSuper Genuine by Hoop
This is… well, I’m speechless. This is, once again, what music is for. This is Talulah Gosh, this is Slumbers. This is the big world made small and the small world made big. This is friendship, this is love. This is memories and tea with bagels and the sound of fire in Germany. This is pretty and fine. This is Hoop.

We’ve got an eclectic mix of songs this Friday. This B-side reminds me of MS MR – who still remembers them? – with its dark, pulsating, catchy-like-the-lure-of-an-evil-fairy electronics. It’s a good sound and ‘Kill the Noise’ has a fine build-up. There’s also nothing wrong with the A-side, ‘Bulletproof‘.

Big Thief – Mythological Beauty

Here’s another quiet one, but differently this time. The images of Nordic nature are apt, since this kind of quiet is cold, nearly motionless, a perfect still life. There’s only a little bobcat catching little animals hidden beneath the snow. I’m reminded of Jónsi’s (of Sigur Ros) solo work, which, though more dramatic, showed the same appreciation for the ground state of nature.

Going to the real Northern Europeans now; Horseface hails from North Sweden, a truly cold place, and sing in Finnish! The same Jónsi reference springs to mind (Iceland, Finland, all the same in the public mind, right?). Horseface’s sound is folkier, but the hypnotic and joyous spirit is the same.

Horseface’s album Jääkausi is out the 20th of April. Pre-order it here.

Aldous Harding – Imagining My Man

‘Imagining My Man’ starts out equally soft and gentle as some of the previous songs, but it turns out to be slightly more outward, with ecstatic ‘Hey!’s throughout. Her voice reminds me of someone else’s and it’s really on the tip of my tongue, but damn I can’t think of it right now. Jesca Hoop, maybe? No, it’s Sharon van Etten. But it’s a good thing that I had to think about it, because far too many bands sound too much like Sharon van Etten.

Aldous Harding’s forthcoming album Party is out 19th May via 4AD/Flying Nun.

Ceiling Demons – March Forward

I’m told this is ‘alternative hip-hop’. Perhaps. A mix between The National and The Streets. It’s this week’s wildcard, so to say, but there’s something I like about it. Find out for yourself.

And that’s it for this week! It’s still a mystery whether we’ll return on Friday or on Sunday, but you’ll see.